


Many Doors and Windows

by misura



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Background Damen/Laurent (Captive Prince), Gen, Nicaise (Captive Prince) Lives, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-19 15:04:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13126164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: "Did you steal another fork?" Damen asked."I traded with one of our soldiers for a knife," said Nicaise. "It's very sharp."





	Many Doors and Windows

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sears](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sears/gifts).



_"We can always use another messenger boy around the palace,"_ Laurent had said, and Damen had agreed, mostly because the idea of turning Nicaise loose outside of the palace had been too alarming to contemplate.

Looking at Nicaise walking around, it was hard to picture anyone having the courage to ask him to carry a message, though. Nicaise wore his beauty like a shield, his pride like a drawn sword.

"Oh, it's you," Nicaise said, when he spotted Damen.

Nikandros might have hit him, or at the very least rebuked him for not showing the respect due a king. Damen was alone, and irrationally, irresistibly reminded of Laurent, or what Laurent might have been like, had he been Damen's junior by years, and alone in a strange court where he did not speak the language.

Even now, very few of the kyroi spoke Veretian, and the number of Veretian courtiers who spoke Akielon was lower still.

"It's me," Damen said, in Akielon. "Are you well?"

Nicaise sneered. "Your Akielons all seem to prefer to fuck women." Damen wondered who he had threatened or possibly bribed to teach him the Akielon language. "I suppose I should have expected no better from barbarians."

Damen tried not to look relieved, or show how disturbing he found the idea that Nicaise might have tried to offer sex to people. In Akielos, men did not fuck boys. True, palace slaves generally started their training when they were not yet of age, but they were never expected to serve until they were ready.

_And soon, nobody will be expected to serve at all, unless it is by their own choice._

"They would not touch you even if they preferred men," he said, putting some slight emphasis on the last word. At Nicaise's age, Damen had begun to become more aware of women and their possibilities, but it had been several years before he had actually bedded one.

"I'd have liked to see them try," said Nicaise. For all that the words were spoken with defiance, Damen thought he detected a hint of uncertainty.

He wondered if in Vere, with pets, it had been as it had been in Akielos, with slaves. Parents with few means might offer their children and be paid for them. The practice ensured that, even in times of peace, there were always new slaves available for service.

He wondered if someone like Nicaise would ever forgive such an act, however born of need it had been. If he might offer to Nicaise to find his family, and have his offer accepted, and have it result in something positive, something that would change Nicaise for the better.

It seemed unlikely. If Kastor had lived, if he had accepted Damen's offer of clemency, could Damen have forgiven him for everything except the part Kastor had played in their father's death?

"Did you steal another fork?" Damen asked. He'd meant it as a joke, a way to steer the conversation back to safer ground. "A spoon, perhaps?"

"I traded with one of our soldiers for a knife," said Nicaise. "It's very sharp."

 _As sharp as your tongue?_ Damen didn't ask. Nor did it seem wise to ask what Nicaise had traded. Laurent had returned his sapphire earring - perhaps he had also offered money.

Perhaps Nicaise had accepted. Perhaps the knife had simply been bought and paid for in coin.

"Not everyone can handle a knife," said Damen. "As a weapon, I mean," he added. "Are you visiting the training grounds? I've never seen you there."

"I know where to stab a man to make him leave me alone," Nicaise said. "Or to make sure he never bothers anyone ever again. You don't think that's good enough?"

_I don't think that's something a boy of your age should know, unless he's been trained for war._

"There's nothing wrong with learning more, surely," said Damen, who visited the training grounds faithfully. In part because Nikandros would come and get him if he did not, but still. "You are of an age where you should give some thought to your future."

Nicaise's expression turned wary for a moment. It occurred to Damen that Nicaise had likely expected to spend many more years as a pet - and then, after, perhaps retirement?

An empty, cold life, or so it seemed to Damen, and one hardly suited to someone with Nicaise's spirit.

"I never learned a trade," Nicaise said. He sounded defiant, like he was daring Damen to think less of him because of it. "There's nothing I know how to do."

_Except stab people with forks and cut them with your tongue._

"You speak Akielon very well," said Damen. "That's something you can do right there. You might find a job as a translator, or an interpreter."

"Akielon is a simplistic language," Nicaise said. "It's easy. It's a barbarian language spoken by barbarians."

"What else do you like to do? You're still young enough to be accepted as an apprentice." Barely, but it would help that Nicaise looked younger than he was, and that Damen would make it clear that anyone taking him on would be doing a favor for their king.

"I don't know." Nicaise was beginning to sound annoyed. "What do you care, anyway? Did he tire of you already? Did you think you might come here and find yourself a replacement?"

 _You pushed him,_ Damen told himself. _Too far, too fast. Take a step back._

"Laurent?" he asked, as if there could be any doubt. "We are very happy together." When they found the time, anyway. "I'm sure that he would like you to find something to make you happy as well."

Nicaise scowled. "He's very stupid, to have fallen in love with you. I suppose I should not have expected better of him, though. He returned my earring to me."

 _He meant it kindly,_ Damen did not say. Laurent had not shared with him what had happened, and it seemed foolish to say things that might not be true. "At least come to the training grounds tomorrow - or whenever you have the time. You are employed by the palace. It's your right."

"I'll think about it," Nicaise said, which, if it was not a 'yes', at least was not a 'no'.

Damen decided to be content with having gotten that much. There would be time enough to ask for more after he had discussed the matter with Laurent, and possibly with Nikandros, as the kyros of Ios.


End file.
